DCI Banks adds cast and plot lines for season five

There’s a fifth series of DCI Banks on the way – with three new two-part stories to be told over six episodes on ITV. Based on the novels by Peter Robinson, the doughty, jazz-loving detective will once again be played by Stephen Tompkinson and be joined by Caroline Catz and Andrea Lowe, along with new cast members. Series five also sees him take on his most fearsome adversary yet, ITV tells us.

The six-part drama features new cast members Samuel Anderson who will play Vince, the latest member of Banks’ team, Shaun Dingwall as Chief Superintendent Colin Anderson, Shaun Dooley as hardened career criminal Steve Richards and Maimie McCoy as Richards’ wife, Tamsin. The series will also see the return of popular cast members Jack Deam as DC Ken Livingstone and Keith Barron as Banks’ father, Arthur Banks.

On top of the self-contained stories, there’s an underlying serial crime story that weaves throughout the whole series, which sees Alan “forced to question all that he holds dear, as he pits his detective skills against criminals who will stop at nothing to escape the law.”

When Banks confronts a powerful adversary who has been dubbed by his superiors as too big to bring down, his dogged pursuit of justice sets in motion a chain of events that rips at the very fabric of his life, both professional and personal. Helen encounters unexpected challenges when she tries for promotion and Annie pursues her own results-driven, gut instinct style of policing which threatens to ruin her relationship with Banks.

The first story finds Banks drawn into the dark world of self-harm when a school teacher and his pupil are found dead. In the second story, Annie discovers a disturbing secret as the team investigate a kidnap within Leeds’ Chinese community and in the final two episodes, Banks’ team question how far he will go in pursuit of justice when he enters a dangerous cat-and-mouse game to pin down a man who is seemingly outside the reach of the law.